I discover 105 productive nests, mostly if you are driving more sluggish across the land

During the for every single breeding season i searched for nests intensively everywhere the research site. I accompanied the fresh new destiny of each and every nest until the egg hatched or the nest were not successful. Nests was visited ranging from 0900 and you can 1700 days and also the visits lasted 2 hundred yards off the nest, anywhere between 1000 and you will 1700 era. Length of the fresh focal findings varied off 31 min to help you seven h, and also the overall lifetime of observation are 29.5 h. Since the the findings varied long so there was indeed times within the which the male was at the colony all day long, so you’re able to estimate this new part of nest appeal i pooled the newest focal observations regarding nests that were in one stage out-of incubation.

Once the males are more likely to desert the fresh colony whenever disturbed from the an initial phase of nesting stage ( Fernandez and Reboreda 2000), we monitored the vast majority of nests (9 of the eleven circumstances totaling 34 colony-days) during the mid- otherwise later incubation

The thermistor of the temperature logger was introduced in a fresh natural orphan egg (unattended eggs laid far from active nests; Navarro et al. 1998) through a small hole in the equatorial plane and fixed to the eggshell with epoxy adhesive. The egg was attached to the center of the nest and the data logger was hidden https://lovingwomen.org/tr/blog/pakistan-tanisma-siteleri/ under the nest. The data logger automatically recorded the temperature at 3.8 or 6 min intervals during four or six days, respectively. We monitored egg temperatures in those 11 nests totaling 40 nest-days. In the other two cases we started the monitoring of the nest three and five days after the laying of the first egg. None of the nests used for monitoring male activity was deserted. We used the decrease in egg temperature to determine when the male left the nest ( Hainsworth et al. 1998, Flint and Grand 1999). We previously estimated egg cooling-rate of Greater Rhea eggs by heating six fresh eggs up to 33°C and then placing them in an environment at a temperature of 25°C, similar to temperatures registered in our study area between 1100 and 1300 hours (the warmest time of the day). We estimated egg cooling-rate by dividing the initial difference in temperature between eggs and the environment by the time elapsed until eggs reached a thermal equilibrium with the environment. The estimated egg cooling-rate for a temperature gradient of 8°C was 0.063 ± 0.01°C min ?1 . We assumed that the male left the nest when the difference in egg temperature was |T_(t) ? T_(t?1)| > 1°C, where T_(t) and T_(t?1) are egg temperatures at a time interval of 15 min when data loggers were set at 3.8 min intervals or 18 min when they were set at 6 min intervals. We considered that the male was outside the nest since the time at which the difference between T_(t) and T_(t?1) was negative until the time it was positive (i.e. the male resumed incubation). Although the sun can heat eggs when the male is absent (particularly at midday), unattended eggs never reached temperatures >30°C (see below). Therefore, it was possible for us to discriminate between an increase in temperature produced by the Sun and one produced by males when they resume incubation.

We and mentioned type from inside the eggs heat within the around three experimental nests (nests in the place of male desire). We put nests that had been in earlier times discontinued as fresh nests. Into the for every single nest (clutch products off sixteen, 21, and you may 23 egg) we fixed one-egg with good thermistor to the, with the center of your own colony similarly one i did towards energetic nests (look for a lot more than).